374 



yV^ TURK 



[January 27, 19 10 



those associated with him at University College, where, 

 during the years since his return from Helwan, he carried 

 out his work on the central nervous system, as well as to 

 a far larger circle of friends, his early death, when he 

 was in the full vigour of his intellect, has been felt as 

 a heavy loss. Dr. Page-May brought a well-trained mind 

 to the study of neurology. He was thoroughly familiar 

 with the literature of this subject, and also with all the 

 special physiological and histological methods which have 

 so largely contributed to those conceptions, which are 

 held at the present time, of the minute structure and 

 modes of action of the brain. Several researches were 

 in actual progress at the time of his death. .'Vmong the 

 more important of his papers we may mention the "In- 

 vestigations into Segmental Representation of Movements 

 in the Lumbar Region of the MammaHan Spinal Cord," 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal 

 Society, 1897; and numerous papers in Brain, on "The 

 Afferent Path," and, in collaboration with Dr. Gordon 

 Holmes, " On the Exact Origin of the Pyramidal Tracts 

 in Man and other Mammals." 



Records of severe earthquake shocks were obtained at 

 many seismological observatories on Saturday, January 22. 

 The following observations of shocks are recorded : — at 

 7.45 a.m. at Seydisfjord, in Iceland ; at Akureyri, in the 

 same island, at about 8 a.m. ; at 8.52 a.m. by Prof. Milne 

 at Shide, in the Isle of Wight ; at 8.45 a.m. by Prof. 

 Belar at Laibach, in Austria. A disturbance was registered 

 at the Pare Saint-Maur earthquake station, Paris, at 

 9 a.m., and was most violent from 9.4 to 9.24 a.m. The 

 French observers locate the earthquake as occurring at a 

 distance of about 3000 kilometres from Paris in a south- 

 easterly direction, and it is believed to have visited the 

 Caucasus or Armenia. Prof. Milne is reported to have 

 estimated the distance of the origin of the shock at a little 

 more than a thousand miles. Prof. Belar is said to have 

 given the distance as 2500 miles, and suggests Asia as the 

 seat of the disturbance. 



The council of the Royal Meteorological Society has for- 

 warded a memorial to the Royal Commission which is 

 now inquiring into the work of the University of London 

 urging that the time is fully ripe for placing the study of 

 meteorology on a more satisfactory basis, and for its 

 inclusion among the subjects for degree examinations. 

 The council has arranged for a provincial meeting to be 

 held at Manchester on February 23, and it is hoped that 

 this will be the means of making the work of the society 

 better known in a district in which considerable attention 

 is already being given to meteorology. At the annual 

 meeting of the society the president presented to Dr. W. N. 

 Shaw, F.R.S., the Symons gold medal for 1910, which had 

 been awarded to him in consideration of his distinguished 

 work in connection with meteorological science. 



Mr. Edward T. Connold, whose death is announced, 

 was born at Hastings on June 11, 1862. He is best known 

 from his researches in connection with British plant-galls, 

 upon which he published the following beautifully illustrated 

 works : — " British Vegetable Galls " (1901), " British Oak 

 Galls " (190S), and " Plant Galls of Great Britain " (1909). 

 .\t the time of his death he had in preparation a work on 

 British wild fruits. His collection of plant-galls is exhibited 

 at the Hastings Museum, in which institution he took 

 great interest. On the formation of the Hastings and St. 

 Leonards Natural History Society in 1S93 he became 

 honorary secretary, and at once entered upon his duties 

 with characteristic enthusiasm. He was an excellent 

 lecturer on popular natural history, while his skill as a 

 NO. 2100, VOL. 82] 



photographer is attested by the plates with which his pub- 

 lished works are embellished. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a catalogue of 

 publications relating to " Evertebrata, " issued by Mr. W. 

 Junk, of Berlin, and containing more than six thousand 

 items. 



Dr. C. Hosseus, of Berlin, communicates to the January 

 issue of Urania a brief n^sume of two collecting trips m 

 Siam, in the course of which much valuable material was 

 obtained. .Special attention is directed to the important 

 rt'tle played in Siam by elephants, which, unhke their 

 cousins in India, breed more or less freely in captivity. 



Naluren for January opens with a long and well-illus- 

 trated article, by Dr. D. Damas, on the oceanography of 

 Greenland, based on the observations made by the Belgica 

 expedition of 1905. Maps show the extent of the ice at 

 different seasons, while the bathymetrical variation in 

 salinity is illustrated by diagrams. 



I\ the Janu.uy number of Knowledge the question is 

 raised, under the heading " Zoological Notes," whether 

 there were ever English species-names for many of the 

 better known kinds of animals, the two sexes of which 

 have distinctive designations of tlieir own. ."Vs examples 

 may be cited mallard and duck, bull and cow, dog .and 

 bitch, and horse and mare. In the opinion of the writer 

 of the note, no species-name originally existed in these and 

 many other cases. 



In the Journal of the Quekctt Microscopical Club for 

 November, 1909, Mr. W. Wesch6 states that, having dis- 

 covered a few years ago the viviparous propagation of the 

 tachinid fly known as Phorodera serriventris, he was at 

 a loss to understand why the female required an ovipositor, 

 more especially one of unusual form. The problem was 

 solved by observations made at Mersea Island, off the 

 Essex coast, last summer. From these it appears that, 

 after birth, the living larva; are introduced by means of 

 a very sharp hook on the under surface of the body of 

 the female into the bodies of caterpillars, the fly making 

 an aperture for their entrance by forcing the hook into 

 its victims. The necessary purchase on the body of the 

 caterpillar is obtained by the grip of the two serrated 

 abdominal plates in advance of the hook, this giving a 

 hold in an opposite direction to the force expended on the 

 penetrating hook. When not in use, the hook is folded in 

 the median line under the abdomen. The larvse have strong 

 chitinous jaws, which are visible through the integuments 

 of the gravid female, and in one instance the author counted 

 no fewer than ninety-eight jaws, although such a number 

 appears to be unusual. 



The greater portion of the contents of vol. xxxi., Nos. 

 3 and 4, of Notes from the Leyden Museum, is devoted to 

 entomological subjects, among which reference may be 

 made to a paper, by Dr. A. Forel, on ants obtained on 

 Krakatau and in Java by Mr. E. Jacobson, with biological 

 notes by the coUcc'.or. The latter gives copious notes on 

 the habits of the species known as Polyrhachis dives, of 

 which a colony was in the habit of invading the bath- 

 room of his residence. The ants effected an entrance 

 through a chink in the wall, so that the nest could not 

 be discovered. They made their appearance in the even- 

 ing, but were in no wise disconcerted by gaslight, and 

 so freely did they drink that their abdomens became 

 greatly distended. The author, who kept many of these 

 ants in captivity, gives figures of three of their nests. 

 In July, 1905, he found that many of the ants were badly 

 infested with nematode worms, the stomach of one in 



